The White House released 1,800 one-ton bomb shipment frozen by former US president Joe Biden, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post.
The delivery was frozen due to the Israeli operation in Rafah.
Freezing arms transfer to Israel
In May 2024, Biden warned Israel that he’d halt US weapons shipments earmarked for Gaza if the IDF embarked on a major military operation against Hamas in Rafah.
“I’ve made it clear that if they [Israel] go into Rafah…I’m not supplying the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah,” Biden told CNN while campaigning in Wisconsin for reelection in November.
Earlier in the day US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Appropriations Committee the US had already paused one shipment to Israel of payload munitions due to concerns over Rafah.
“We’ve held up one shipment,” Biden explained to CNN.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they [Israel] go after population centers” in Gaza, Biden stressed to CNN.
Hannah Sarisohn and Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this article.
